Dragon's Heart, Fire's Will
by Inverse Grimoire
Summary: AU. A traveling warrior, one of the last of an ancient order, happens across two small children being kidnapped during his time training in Konohagakure. He rescues them, and leaves the two orphan boys with a few old books, some forged paperwork, and powers not widely used for centuries. The boys are soon after joined by a young girl, and together they set out to change the world.
1. The Kyuubi Festival

**A/N:** A few weeks after initially writing this story, I looked back on it and cringed. I was very unhappy with it, but I didn't really know how to improve it at the time. Now, a few years later, I have some more experience writing and I think this story still has a lot of potential. Therefor, I'm going to clean up these first three chapters and take another stab at it.

**Chapter 1: The Kyuubi Festival, A Celebration of Suffering**

A six year old Uchiha Sasuke knelt on the ground next his only remaining friend. Blood pooled around the boy's knees and stained his white shorts as he tried desperately to do something, anything, other than just sit there in shock. Flashbacks of the Uchiha Massacre only one year ago swam in front of his eyes as he fought a losing battle against his own horror and paralysis while he watched the body of his brother in all but blood cooling just a few feet away.

A man wearing heavy plate mail armor with a red cape and holding a large spear in one hand stood a short distance away from the tragic scene, sighing as he looked away from the boys and cursing himself for his hesitation to slay the Leaf Chunin at his feet. If only he had stepped in a little sooner…

Uzumaki Naruto wouldn't be dead.

* * *

**10 minutes earlier….**

It was the 10th of October, the day of the annual festival which celebrated the Yondaime Hokage's sacrifice of his own life to defeat and seal away the rampaging Kyuubi no Kitsune, a demonic being of unimaginable power, into a small child thus saving the Village Hidden in the Leaves from its terrible onslaught. The sudden attack of the Kyuubi took Konohagakure completely by surprise, as the Kyuubi had long since been sealed away and contained by the Uzumaki clan of the Village Hidden in the Whirlpools, who had been long time allies of the Leaf Village. The Uzumaki clan had used their vast knowledge of fuuinjustu combined with their special bloodline, Chakra Chains, to seal the Kyuubi who had been summoned by Madara Uchiha to attack the leaf many years ago, when the leaf village was first founded, and had kept the Kyuubi in their possession ever since.

Many civilians and ninja of the Leaf were instantly killed in the surprise attack when the beast suddenly appeared right inside the village walls without warning, and immediately went on a rampage. The unprepared guards were caught flat footed and slaughtered without a chance to defend themselves. A full fourth of the shinobi population and a fifth of the civilian population of the village were slaughtered before the Yondaime was able to use an advanced variation of his legendary space-time manipulation technique to teleport himself and the demon away from the village and buy enough time to restrain the Kyuubi and seal it into his newborn son, Uzumaki Naruto, using a self sacrificing forbidden sealing technique that his wife, Uzumaki Kushina, had taught him.

The sudden massive loss of life due to the rampage of the great demon fox left a bitter taste in the mouth of many of the villagers. A sizable portion of the surviving populace grew to resent, and in some cases outright hate, the young Uzumaki who had been used to seal the demon away. The people of the village were (mostly) not stupid enough to mistake the boy for the demon itself in human form or any such nonsense (they had, after all, been on amicable terms with the previous jinkurichi of the Uzumaki clan, his mother). The anger of the populace stemmed from the pain of their losses combined with the their feelings of betrayal. Since Uzumaki Kushina had been the jinkurichi of the Kyuubi, and there was never any explanation given about how the Kyuubi had gotten free (her death and relationship with the Yondaime had been covered up as an S class village secret to protect young Naruto from enemies foreign and domestic), the prevailing assumption of the populace was that she had unleashed the demon upon them of her own free will, and then disappeared.

The demon had never been accidentally released before and the strength of the Uzumaki clan's bloodline was well known and respected, so the chance that the beast was released accidentally was not considered as realistic by most. As it turned out, this assumption was correct, however truth of how the Kyuubi came to be released was also designated as an S class secret.

With so many secrets about the truth of that terrible night being kept, it was no wonder that the populace eventually decided to settle on their own version of events... one born out of pain and rage. In this version of events, Kushina eventually snapped after the strain of the fall of Uzushiogakure and, blaming Konoha for not putting enough effort into saving her ancestral home, unleashed the Kyuubi in an effort to share her suffering. Thus, the young Naruto grew up associated with a mother who was considered by many as an unstable traitor to Konoha and with the same demon fox who had ruined many lives.

Such misconceptions, combined with the pain of loss and alcohol on the anniversary of the event, inevitably lead to the current scenario playing out the sixth anniversary of the Kyuubi's attack.

* * *

'I wish I was allowed to go to the festival…' young Uzumaki Naruto thought to himself, oblivious in his youth to the demon contained inside of him, 'Every year everyone else gets to go out and have fun celebrating, and I'm always stuck here at home bored…'.

Naruto had been living in the orphanage for the first four years of his life, until the matron eventually snapped and told the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, that though she personally bore no ill will towards the young demon container, his presence in the orphanage had kept anyone from adopting the other children in her care ever since he had come to live there. He was not a violent or troublesome child, and in fact he made friends easily. That was exactly the problem however, as no prospective parents would adopt a child that "felt comfortable around traitors", seeing it as a sign that the child would grow up with poor judgment of character. With so many orphans left over from the Kyuubi attack, people would simply go elsewhere and find a child that was not 'tainted' to adopt.

Since the Hokage could tell that she was just telling the truth as she saw it and also raised a valid point (being an old, wise, leader of a ninja village came with perks like that), he had no choice but to give in and take the boy off her hands so that the rest of the children had a fair chance for adoption.

Realizing that the problem could not be solved by simply depositing Naruto into a different orphanage, the Hokage decided to secretly leave Naruto in the care of Mikoto Uchiha until he became old enough to live on his own (the Hokage reckoned that he'd be fine at the age of 8, seeing as how he sent children of age 12 out in to the world as professional killers it seemed as reasonable an age for independence as any).

Mikoto was a very close friend of Kushina's, and was in fact was originally supposed to be the one to take care of him in the event that anything happened to his parents, but alas the Council of Fire (the Leaf's legislative body consisting of important clan heads and significantly wealthy civilian business owners) would not agree to allow the child to be adopted by the Uchihas, seeing as it as an attempt to gain influence over an important village resource. Ever since shortly after the end of the Clan Wars and the founding of hidden villages, each great nation had always controlled at least one jinchuriki in order to maintain the balance of power. Any personal feelings aside, the boy was seen as a strategic military asset which at the very least should not be just handed over to one of the dominate powers in the village. Better to not have a jinchuriki then to have one raised to be used as a political bartering chip in the future.

With all the bickering, Naruto was eventually destined for the orphanage to end the arguments. However, since Naruto was still registered as an orphan and his status could only be changed if the previous matron signed off on it; the Hokage was able to bargain with her that he would only take Naruto off her hands if she didn't "get around" to filing the paperwork for a few years.

The matron of course quickly agreed, and Naruto was sent off live with Mikoto Uchiha and her immediate family consisting of Fugaku Uchiha (the head of the clan) and the two sons, Sasuke (who was Naruto's age and whom Kushina and Mikoto had always plotted to make friends when they were pregnant) and Itachi (who was 16 but was already an ANBU and was considered the prodigy of the clan). Naruto and Sasuke ended up as inseparable friends since they mostly only had each other's company, what with Fugaku ignoring them both in favor of Itachi, Itachi always being out on missions, and Mikoto generally being busy with clan affairs when she wasn't taking care of the household and training to keep herself in shape (all Uchiha were required by clan law to keep themselves fit for combat, this was one of many things that led to most of the village to distrust the Uchiha clan as a whole).

The two grew even closer in the aftermath of the Uchiha Massacre a year later, when Itachi slaughtered the entire clan on orders from the Hokage (on the night before the Uchiha, fed up with a percieved lack of respect, had planned to start a civil war) and fled the village as a 'missing ninja' with orders to secretly continue reporting in and carrying out missions.

For whatever reason, the truth of the Uchiha Massacre managed to get out to the general public (although Itachi was still listed as a missing nin to keep up appearances for his undercover work), and the fact that Naruto had been staying with the clan head's family only exaggerated the paranoia that 'those who associate with the traitorous Uzumaki clan are bound to become traitors themselves'.

Due to this stigma, Sasuke became just as unadoptable as Naruto, and so the Hokage had little choice but to let them both live together in their own apartment at only five years old. The Sandaime knew that it would be unwise to leave the children unguarded until they had some formal shinobi training to defend themselves (the academy started at age 6 and students graduated at age 12), and so he assigned a revolving guard of two ANBU at a time to keep watch over the children's apartment at night, just in case any misguided patriots got the idea in their heads to "nip the treasonous threat in the bud".

The Hokage underestimated the craftiness of those misguided fools however, and due to the nature of a revolving guard, eventually the time came when the apartment was guarded by two ANBU who were both sympathetic to the "patriotic cause" as it was called by its supporters. These shifts lasted for three weeks each, and the fact that the two sympathetic ANBU's shift happened to overlap the day of the sixth annual Kyuubi festival proved to be too much of a temptation to let slip by.

As Naruto laid there on his back in his apartment, bored out of his mind, his patience was sorely being tested by the *whiiiip* *snick* *whiiip* *snick* sounds of a yo-yo coming down just inches from his face, and retreating into the hand of the raven haired Uchiha Sasuke, who was laying on his back on his bunk just a few feet higher than the young blonde and idly playing with the yo-yo as he too desperately thought of some way to alleviate his boredom on a night that would have surely been great fun if only they had been allowed to go outside by the Hokage.

With half-lidded eyes, the blond jinkurichi turned his head slightly in the direction of his roommate and the closest thing he had to a brother and said, "I swear to god Sasuke, if you hit me with that thing I'm going to strangle you with it… Don't you have anything better to do then play chicken with my face with your little toy?"

Sasuke yanked the yo-yo back into his hand with a louder snap than normal and sat up, and responded with theatrical anger, "Don't you dare diss the yo-yo, what has she ever done to you other than try to get as close as she can, but never quite making it. Doesn't the fact that she keeps coming back no matter how often she fails inspire you at all?"

This speech was given with intense seriousness and a great deal of dramatic hand motions, as if to convey just how inspiring a metaphor the yo-yo's simple actions were for life. It was a blue yo-yo, with the signature vaguely pokeball looking symbol of the Uchiha clan emblazoned on both sides, and it was one of Sasuke's most prized possessions.

He received a blank stare for his efforts, and a casual response, "We've had this discussion before, and you know that I was more interested in a solution to this boredom than another monolog about the merits of a yo-yo. It's not like we can just prank the ANBU guards and make our escape to the festival is it?"

The suggestion was intended as an offhand remark about the futility of such an endeavor, but as soon as it left the blonde's mouth and he saw the gleam in his friend's eyes, he knew what they would be doing that night.

"…..is it?" he repeated, just to make sure he was correct in assuming where this was going. He needn't have bothered.

* * *

Just outside the building, the two ANBU who were assigned as guards were paying careful attention to the developments inside and were elated to realize that this was exactly the opportunity they were looking for. They could not allow any harm to befall the two treacherous spawn while on duty if it was within their ability to prevent it or else the Hokage would have their heads literally.

However, if they allowed themselves to fall prey to the machinations of the two legendary pranksters of the village, they would most likely be given demerits but nothing serious would occur to them other than a stern warning to be more vigilant. Even if they were to receive a harsher punishment, it couldn't be all that bad and would be well worth it for 'The Cause'.

One of the ANBU quickly vanished via Shunshin to go and arrange for a fellow "patriot" to stop by and kidnap the two children while the ANBU were "incapacitated" by the pranks that were being planned. If the children somehow survived or if another leaf ninja happened to stumble upon the situation and save them, the brats would confess that they had planned the break out of their own free will and the ANBU who were supposed to be guarding them would be given lenience.

The ANBU appeared back at his post just in time for his partner (who had allowed himself to be detected so as to make it easier for the children to succeed) to fall through a hole in the roof of the building that hadn't been there before and land in a vat of tar.

When the other ANBU went over and looked down into the hole to see what happened to his partner, the edges around the hole suddenly collapsed and sent him tumbling into the vat as well.

As soon as the first ANBU fell, the two children quickly sneaked out of a secret door they had carved in their wall as an escape route (when they were bored one day…) and headed down the alleyway adjacent to the apartment, hoping to get to the festival quickly and lose the ANBU in the crowd. Unfortunately for them, they didn't make it very far before they both, in rapid sequence, felt a pain in the back of their heads and fell unconscious.

* * *

The off duty Chunin dropped his two small living packages unceremoniously on the ground next to a tree in a training area far from the festival that appeared to be empty. The children hit the ground hard, and both began to stir from their unconsciousness.

Noticing that the blond jinchuriki appeared to be waking faster than the Uchiha, the Chunin professionally grabbed him and quickly stuck a kunai in the child's heart, provoking the child to immediately open his eyes and gurgle blood while feebling reaching up to grab his attacker through bleary eyes.

It was far too late for the boy however, even as he reached up he felt his strength fading, the edges of his vision darkening, and felt his hand drop to his side, no longer responsive to his mental commands. As last of the light left his eyes, he noticed a flash of something quickly passing by, then… nothing.

* * *

As the two ill fated youth were preparing the prank that would unbeknownst to them go horribly right, there was another who was not enjoying the festival. A moderately tall figure sat in a meditative position in a clearing near one of the many training fields in Konohagakure, wearing what appeared to be full plated armor similar to that worn by the samurai of the land of Iron, with his eyes closed and a large broad tipped spear floating silently and steadily a few inches behind him. The wistful look on his face would have given away the nature of his meditation to anyone who knew him very well.

'It's so quiet here... this is supposed to be a celebration of life, however when I try and attune myself to the feelings of happiness in the village… there are surprisingly few for such a large festival.' The lone figure contemplated, wondering why things must be this way, 'Why do people find it so hard to let go of the past and look towards the future…could it be that they… don't want to be happy…?'

'What's this now' he thought to himself, one eyebrow rising slowly as he recognized a few fresh thoughts of joy flickering into his empathetic search, 'this is odd, though at first these two people seem happy, upon closer inspection they have a malicious edge to them… I should keep any eye on… " he stopped again, noticing two more lights of joy popping up, these ones more pure, which a hint of mischievousness.

He kept a silent vigil for a short time, noticing as one of the maliciously happy people quickly left and reappeared, bringing a third malicious person, only this one wasn't happy, the best he could get from him was a stale sort of amusement, perhaps ironic amusement. A few minutes later there was a sudden flurry of activity culminating with the two pure lights winking out and the amused one heading swiftly in this direction.

'This is not good… I better stay hidden and check this out, I may have to intervene if my suspicions prove correct…' the man thought to himself as he moved to a nearby training area and concealed himself behind some rocks, 'based on the direction of movement and speed, this should be where he stops...'

A few minutes later, a man appeared in the field, carrying two young boys who were unconscious. Noticing the careless way the children were dropped, the armored spear wielder pulled his weapon from where it had been hovering before, readying it to strike even though he was hidden the full length of the training field away.

'Definitely a kidnapper' he thought to himself, 'the kids are stirring, but he looks like hell put them back to sleep, I'll wait till then so that the kids don't have to witnes- OH MY GOD!'

During the short time that he had hesitated to allow the kidnapper to presumably knock the child back out, the man had instead professionally and without hesitation or remorse stabbed the child in the heart with a kunai in such a way that it was clear that the child would die within seconds.

Having seen more than enough, the armored man leveled his spear horizontally at the child murderer and with a speed and grace that appeared inhuman slid across the training ground and ran his spear clear through were the other man's heart would be, killing him instantly.

The movement was so fast that even a Kage would have completely missed it if they hadn't been paying close attention.

As if just catching up to the sudden movement, a harsh breeze passed over the field in the direction of the mans charge, churning up dust and fluttering his red cape which had until then lain motionless.

Looking down he noticed that at some point during the commotion the black haired kid had woken up. The child stared with eyes wide and in shock for a few seconds, before snapping out of it and desperately shaking the obviously dead blonde like it would wake him up somehow.

"No, please no! Not again, I don't have anyone else, please…" it was barely audible but the man heard the breathless whispers of the small child.

Upset that his hesitation to spill blood in front of a child led to this horrible outcome, the man was unable to look into the child's face as he said, "He's gone kid, he's probably not coming back from the dead. Not many do…"

The child's first reaction when the man began to speak was to deny it, even though he himself had seen enough dead bodies to know that his last friend was gone, but when his brain processed the rest of the statement his head whipped around and locked onto the man so fast it should have given any normal person whiplash.

The black haired youth's mind was firing at top gear and he fixed the spear wielding man with a serious look that was completely out of place on a child so young, "You say that as though it's possible for him to come back from the dead at all."

His response was a sigh, and a short shake of the head, "Just a slip of the tongue kid, nothing to concern yourself wi-" but he never got to finish what he was saying because he was interrupted by the surviving child. A child who had gone from numb with shock to incredibly, almost unreasonable calm.

"Don't give me that. Just don't. I'm grateful that you showed up when you did, but right now all I care about is my friend. My dead friend, and any slim chance that he might not remain that way."

It was easy to see that his slip of the tongue had caused to child's state of mind to harden like ice, a cold outlook focused on one goal which was every bit as fragile as it was calming. If the boy didn't hear the answers he wanted, he could easily snap even harder then if he had just been left to deal with the death of his friend alone. Now the man had to run damage control because of his big mouth. He had been through a lot of battles though, and seen a lot of grieving people, and so he kept his own cool and prepared to let the child down easily.

"Listen here kid," he began, ignoring the boy's almost dead looking eyes and the desperation hidden within them, "I do know of a few ways that someone could come back from the dead, yes, but there's no one within 100 miles of here that I know of who could do it to someone else, and even if they were here it would cost them their own life to do so." He explained, "And she is saving that resurrection technique for a very specific person so there's no use asking her because she gets that kind of request all the time. If you're friend is going to come back to life he has to do it on his own."

Although the man gave out a lot of information (for a small child to understand anyway) there was only one piece that truly stuck in Sasuke's head.

"Bring himself back to life?" he asked, partly confused at the notion and mostly skeptical, "stop screwing around, if that was possible a lot of people would have done it!"

"It's an ancient art whose use has long since declined, requiring a connection to a mostly forgotten god, a sacrifice of mana, and an incredible will to live from the person in question." The man lectured, "The skill I'm talking about is one I'm actually quite good at, and I have brought myself back from the dead more times than I care to count. If you want me to, I can use one of my techniques to give your dead friend some of my mana and a temporary connection to my God, and then your friend might be able to bring himself back if he wants to and has a strong enough will."

"...do it." Sasuke demanded, his bearing somehow becoming even more frigid, "The Hokage always remarks about the Will of Fire. It's time to see if there's any truth to that..." he trailed off at the end, having mostly burned out his energy and strength already just from holding himself together.

The man could tell that the psychological damage the boy would suffer if this failed would only increase every second that his hopes continued to raise. This was the choice he had made though, it would only make things worse to turn back now. The black haired kid might go off and try to become a necromancer or something if he didn't at least try to bring his friend back.

"Alright, well despite this being incredibly unlikely to work on a small child who hasn't had much to live for yet, I in fact have a friend I met this exact way a while back (what a story that was) so this isn't exactly a hopeless gesture, only a mostly hopeless one!" The man pumped his fist and smiled, trying to look inspiring, but his saying that the situation was mostly hopeless completely ruined the effect.

The man sighed at the deadpan stare he got for his 'charismatic speech', and dropped to one knee next to the bloody blond. He then put one hand on each side of the fallen child's heart and intoned softly, but firmly under his breath…

"…**Wish**…"

The man briefly glowed white, and then twin balls of light, red and blue, slowly drifted up from him in a spiral pattern before at some predetermined distance they swiftly changed direction and slammed into the blonde directly between the man's hands. The child glowed white for a second before the wound closed up quickly, leaving only the blood, ripped clothes, and an unbreathing little boy as evidence that any damage had been done at all.

"All right then, here we go…" the man said softly to himself as he closed his eyes and clasped his hands together in prayer.

**'…God, please help us sinful children of the Elemental Nations...'**

"Now all we can do is wait," the man spoke up after a short while, still on one knee and in a prayer position, "I'd say that if he hasn't come back to us in another five minutes or so, he's not coming back at all. My prayer was answered, but unless he somehow pledges himself to **Ultima** while dead and unaware of her existence he will need my continued prayer in order for his soul to find his way back to his body. This skill is called **Dragon Heart**, by the way, and is the very first skill that young children your age must learn and use at least once before an examination board before they can be accepted for training by my order so this should work theoretically if your friend has a strong enough will. It's up to him now..." The man trailed off, seemingly content to wait out the boys potential self resurrection in silence. Sasuke, worn out from the entire ordeal, was silent as well.

* * *

The pain was fading, the colors were fading, the memories of why he should be struggling were fading… who was he, why did it matter anymore. He didn't know what he was holding on to or why or how he was doing it. All he knew was that if he let go, something very pleasant would happen. Every moment the sensation of pleasure would tingle on the edge of his existence, goading him into letting go. But why did it matter? He didn't know, all he knew was that for whatever reason, even if he had nothing else and no reason to do so, and even if he could have all the pleasure that exists, he would never let go of whatever it is he had a hold of right now.

It become more difficult over time, like whatever it is he was holding was pushing him away and it was all he could do to keep his grip and hold his ground, but the extra difficulty only made Naruto that much more determined. Time itself was meaningless here, it could have been seconds, hours, or days for all he knew. Only the increasing difficulty of holding on marked that time was passing at all.

Suddenly, he felt something. This was important to note, because he had at that point long since stopped feeling anything at all besides "the push", and the idea that letting go would lead to pleasant things. If Naruto had anything resembling coherent thought left at that point, he might have theorized that the reason he could feel this new thing was because it was also a push, only in was in the opposite direction making it more of a pull. "The pull" made it easier to hold onto his "precious thing", and so Naruto decided that "the pull" must be good.

The strangest thing though, was that along with "the pull", came pain. When he wanted more of "the pull" to make holding on easier, it suddenly was there, but there was more pain. When he wanted less of "the pull", it eased up and there was less pain. Normally, the decision of what to do when confronted with something that's painful, and something that's pleasant was obvious. And to Naruto, it was still obvious.

He pulled HARD.

* * *

Sasuke sat there for what seemed like hours, but was really only minutes, hoping against hope that this wasn't some cruel trick by the mysterious man nearby and that there was a genuine chance for Naruto to come back to life.

He tried playing with his yo-yo to pass the time but his fingers shook too hard to get the timing right and in his frustration he shut his eyes and through his prized possession at random to relieve some tension. He noticed a bright flash of white light through his eye lids and when he opened his eyes he was shocked and elated to find that Naruto was sitting up with the yo-yo caught in one hand and seemed to be smirking and saying something but all Sasuke cared was that he was ALIVE!

Whatever witty comment the blonde was trying to make was forgotten in his shock as the last Uchiha pounced on him and held him in the tightest hug he could manage.

"Hmmmm… so, **Dragon's Heart** with the Will of Fire eh?" the astonished spear wielding muttered to himself, standing off to the side of the clearing and already forgotten by the happily reunited boys, "yes, they'll do nicely…"

Whatever plans the mysterious man had for the children would have to wait, as just then the Sandaime Hokage arrived flanked by four ANBU (none of which were covered in tar).

Sarutobi Hiruzen took in the scene at a glance, everything from the blood on the happy children, to the dead leaf Chunin, to the strange armored man.

Taking a draw from his pipe to calm his nerves and keeping his face impassive (another benefit of leading a ninja village for decades was a strong poker face), he turned to the armored lance wielding man who was muttering to himself prior to his arrival and blew out the smoke before making his demand.

"…Explain. Now."


	2. The Power of Mana

**Chapter 2: The Power of Mana, The Birth of Chakra**

The mysterious armored man met the Hokage's steely gaze with his own and held it for several seconds in silence before making a consenting sound and nodding respectfully towards the aged leader. He turned casually to once again take in the full view of the scene and decided to ask for a change of venue.

"Of course Hokage. I may not be from around here but I will gladly cooperate with your investigation into these matters, however…" he paused, and gestured vaguely towards the scene, "seeing as how the children do not require immediate medical attention it would probably be best for us to take this discussion elsewhere. "

Sarutobi made another draw from his pipe as he took a sidelong glance at the two orphan boys he had come to care for on a personal level. They were chatting animatedly, making lots of arm gestures and shaking their fists sporadically. Sarutobi returned most of his attention to the stranger now that he had convinced himself that the children would be alright for the moment. He stared at the man in question and tried to gauge him based on his body language.

'He seems relaxed yet ready, the stance of an experienced combat veteran…' the old Hokage mused, 'His posture shows deference to me even though I am not his leader, yet he is not submissive. He doesn't appear to exhibit any of the well hidden anxiety that would appear even on a highly skilled ninja, so I don't believe he intends to be deceitful.'

The analysis was moot at the moment, as the stranger's suggestion to talk somewhere else was one the Sandaime was going to make on his own, but it never hurt to take the time to get a feel for any potentially dangerous adversaries. Habitual information gathering just came with the territory of being the leader of a ninja village, and the man in front of him apparently without much effort dispatched a chuunin level shinobi, making him equal to a mid level jounin at the least.

It was a reasonable request to make when discussing issues in a ninja village, eyes and ears everywhere as they say. The Hokage could not refuse the request without losing some of his appearances as a reasonable and hospitable leader.

That did not mean, however, that the other man had pulled a fast one on the Hokage. In fact, since he had made the request first, he was putting himself in a position to be held with greater accountability for the event, essentially eliminating the possibility of fleeing the scene without repercussions. This was especially so considering that the new venue for discussion would of course be the Hokage's office.

This, aside from the man's body language and protective position he had previously taken in front of the children, convinced the Sandaime to at least hear the man out rather than immediately have him arrested for killing one of his shinobi.

"Very well, then…" he agreed, releasing the smoke he had been holding in throughout his entire inner monolog, "We shall continue this discussion in my office." He made a few discreet hand signals to his ANBU as he finished speaking, signaling them to take the body for an autopsy and do some recon in the area of the children's apartment to find out what happened and how they managed to give their guard the slip. As one the group of ANBU nodded in affirmation and vanished, one of them straggling to take the body of the assassin with him.

The Hokage grabbed one child under each arm, ignoring their protests that they could find their way on their own ("You wandered around on your own once already today remember?" "…hai"), and disappeared with a silent and seal less Shunshin.

* * *

He appeared outside the Hokage Tower and leaped up through the window of his office with negligible effort. He felt a slight breeze as he dropped the children onto a couch that was situated for the convenient of clients, and was unsurprised to see the mysterious stranger standing in front of his desk when he turned around.

He closed the window from across the room with a flick of his wrist and smirked when Naruto loudly proclaimed how awesome he was for being able to pull off such a simple trick.

The old ninja sat down in his comfy chair (it had to be comfy in order for the massive amount of paperwork he did at his desk to be at all survivable) and refilled his pipe as he turned to look expectantly at the children, wanting to get their explanations first.

Naruto, who had mostly been struggling to keep down his declarations of innocence, decided that he couldn't hold it in anymore.

"It's not our fault Hokage-jiji! We were just minding our own business, heading down to the festival, when suddenly BAM! I was out cold!" he exclaimed, waving his hands around to emphasize how randomly he was struck down. The Hokage didn't fail to notice that the mischievous youth was attempting to gloss right over the matter that he had given his guards the slip, and why he was out doors on the day of the festival when he had been explicitly forbidden to do so.

"The only thing I remember after that was waking up to a sharp pain in my chest, and seeing that mean ninja pushing a kunai into me for some reason!" he continued, honestly oblivious to the idea that the man was trying to kill him. The Sandaime would have preferred a more accurate description of where exactly Naruto was wounded, but the blonde's understanding of human anatomy was limited to knowing that it was his chest, and not say his arm or his head, that was impaled.

"I tried to fight back, I really did! I just felt so weak though, I mean I tried to move my arms to hit him but they wouldn't listen to me and it just kept getting darker until I couldn't see anything anymore! Actually, I don't think I heard or felt anything else either…" the child looked away and trailed off introspectively, not noticing the sharp and startled look directed his way when he began describing what was essential the experience of death to the Sandaime.

The young jinchuriki shook his head as if to dismiss his train of thought and opened his mouth to ramble on some more, but the Hokage decided that he had already pretty much gathered all the useful testimony he was going to get from the blonde and held his hand up, immediately silencing him.

He leaned back and considered the implications of what Naruto had told him about his experience. Apparently, the two had somehow managed to escape their guard and were on their way to the Kyuubi festival despite numerous warnings. They were summarily kidnapped and brought out to that training ground to be killed by one of his own men. Naruto was dealt a quick and fatal strike, most likely the Kyuubi was unable to protect and heal him due to his age and undeveloped chakra network.

His gaze swiveled around the room, taking in its three other occupants and getting their reactions to Naruto's description of the events. Naruto himself appeared to be more worried that he might have said something to get himself into trouble than his own near (?) death experience. Sasuke seemed rather calm and contemplative then the old man had expected, considering his own past trauma regarding death of his loved ones. The Third wasn't sure whether he liked the way the last Uchiha was handling this situation or not, and decided to forget about it for now to deal with more important concerns.

The stranger though, was displaying some odd reactions. He appeared calm and unconcerned over the man he recently (probably) killed. That was understandable; the way he carried himself made it clear to the experienced leader of warriors that he had seen and dealt his fair share of death, and killing someone when he believed he was doing the right thing probably didn't weigh heavily on his mind at this point. The off part about him was the tiny upturn of one side of his mouth and the hidden mirth in his eyes, as if he was amused about some part of tonight's events and was struggling to restrain himself for the sake of propriety.

"Sasuke-kun!" he snapped, turning his head to focus on the last Uchiha once more.

The young man was startled and instantly pulled out of his own musings by the Hokage's commanding voice, and gulped almost audibly, taking a few breaths to calm himself before he gave his own recounting of events.

"OK, so…" he began, desperately trying to think of the most innocent way to say this, "there we were, in our apartment minding our own business when all of a sudden the roof cracked and these two ninja fell down into this large vat of tar we had lying around and –"

"Hold on a minute there Sasuke…" the Hokage interrupted, one hand out in a stop gesture, and the other palming his face. "Why, exactly, did you two have a large vat tar in your apartment? Where would you even get such a thing?"

Caught in his attempt to speed talk the old ninja leader, he absently stroked one of his arms with his other hand and didn't meet the Hokage's eyes as he admitted, "Alright... we went out of our way to set a trap for the guards so we could get out and visit the festival…"

Already having guessed that far ahead, the Sandaime resolved to have the two ANBU working that shift sent to Ibiki as there was no way that any ninjas of that level who were not caught on purpose would get tricked in such a manner by a pair of six year olds – no matter how prodigal. 'Those fools probably thought they were being clever and covering their tracks. Who the hell do they take me for? I've seen through more elaborate and skilled ploys as a genin.'

"That's enough Sasuke, I think I know how this situation developed. Now I just want to know what part this man over here played in tonight's events." He directed, pointedly looking at the as of yet still unnamed stranger. His eyes narrowed a small fraction when he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Sasuke seemed almost relieved to be out of the spotlight. If the child was older, he might have read that as meaning that there was more to the story that he hadn't wanted to share, but as it was the Hokage dismissed it as a small child being intimidated by a stern questioning by the village leader.

"I was relaxing in a training field alone, " the stranger began, taking the Sandaime's hint, "I had been meditating and practicing a technique which allows me to sense strong emotions near bye. I figured that the easiest place to get a reading would be near a festival, and the one here in Konoha matched up with my traveling plans nicely."

The Hokage scratched his chin and understood the idea, it was after all well known that Konoha was a passionate village and the textbook method train a new technique is to apply it in the easiest conditions. He nodded in acknowledgment that the foreigner had adequately explained his presence and urged him on.

Seeing this as a good sign he continued his narrative, "I noticed a strange combination of emotions flaring up near bye including amusement, mischievousness, maliciousness, and a bit of killing intent was in there as well. Disturbed by these readings, I decided to keep an "eye" out for further developments and quickly deduced that two children were being kidnapped and brought to a nearby training area."

If the Hokage was impressed with the spear wielding man's deductive abilities he didn't show it outwardly.

'OK, moving on then…' "I hid behind some rocks and decided to interfere if I had the chance to." He finished, seemingly deciding that that was all there was to recount.

Sarutobi waited for a few moments, before deciding that he probably wasn't going to get any more out of the man without pressing for it.

"Why, exactly, did you decide to "interfere" with this apparent kidnapping? What did you believe was in it for you?" the Hokage didn't want to sound like he was ungrateful, but he had to make sure that the man in front of him didn't have less than noble intentions such as taking the hostages for himself or trying to claim a reward.

Whereas before the armored man's eyes shone with concealed mirth, at this line of questioning they hardened and became unreadable. "It is truly a sad state of the world when so few have honor that one is looked upon with suspicion for doing the right thing." His voice was level but his tone made it clear that he was restraining himself from launching into a rant the he must have had many times before. It seemed to be a sore point within the man who previously seemed moderately unshakable.

It appeared to the Hokage that the man was speaking earnestly, which raised the respect he had for the him somewhat. It's not easy to hold on to such honorable ideals in this age that's dominated by espionage and political intrigue.

"So, you hid then and waited for an opportunity to intervene. Naruto-kun appears to have been injured at some point though. I can only assume that the situation deteriorated before you could act then?" the Hokage injured, finally getting to the only part of the story he really needed to hear about as he could not infer it on his own.

The armored man shifted uncomfortably at this and looked away, before sighing and returning to looking the Hokage in the eye.

"Yes, I hesitated to attack the kidnapper because the children were waking up, and I thought he was going to knock them back out. I would have preferred for them to not see what I was about to do, but before I realized that he was just going to immediately kill them he had already stabbed a kunai into the blonde one's heart. I immediately launched across the field and impaled the kidnapper with my spear, but the young one was already dead by the time I pulled my weapon out of the corpse." he admitted to the Hokage, filling in a few more of the gaps in the story and setting up for the rest of his explanation.

Sarutobi had been wondering how Naruto had time to take a fatal blow (That he recovered from? There was still much more to this story..) when such a skilled looking warrior, able to dispatch a chuunin with ease, was around to save him, but had to admit from experience that it isn't always as simple as charging in to combat full force in many situations. He ran a quick mental simulation of the scenario and was satisfied that such an outcome was easily possible, and even likely based on what information he had gathered so far.

The story checked out... mostly.

He folded his arms and leaned back into his chair, fixing a even firmer stare on the other man.

"That's all well and good, and your version of events seems reasonable so far, however there's still an important detail that I'm impatient to get around to. You say that Naruto-kun was struck down and killed before you could act, and the boys own testimonies complement that story disturbingly well. But then, if this is true, tell me..."

The Hokage's gaze suddenly became even more piercing if possible, and the stranger let out a deep sigh as he knew what was coming next and was not looking forward to this next portion of his report.

"If he was dead then, why is he alive now?"

The encounter had started off strange, and was about to get stranger.

"I am a Dragoon." The armored man stated with pride, "One of the last of an ancient order. You are known as 'The Professor', are you not? Surely you must have some knowledge of this matter." He crossed his arms as he awaited the Hokage's response.

Sarutobi's eyes widened a fraction and he sat back in his chair to contemplate this new piece of information and its implications. The self proclaimed Dragoon was correct; the Sandaime was well versed in ancient lore and was able to put together a mental scenario that would make sense if the man told the truth. He appeared way too proud about his statement to be lying, which lent some credibility to his assertion to be a class of warrior that was thought to have long since vanished from the world.

Smoking his pipe, the Hokage mentally reviewed the relevant facts about Dragoons that he could remember off the top of his head. Almost a thousand years ago, when the world was in a state of perpetual war, a God named **Ultima** was said to have descended and granted those she deemed worthy with the ability to draw in the energy of the world and store it internally inside the body in what became known as 'mana pools' (which appeared to scholars to be the ancient precursor of chakra networks). Furthermore, **Ultima **would then grant unique abilities and the knowledge to use them to those who swore to uphold certain virtues. When a mana wielding human made this contract with **Ultima** they would gain what would become known as a **Class**, a designation which directly reflected their contract and abilities.

It was said that these various classes each wielded powers far beyond that of modern day shinobi. The ancient books that the Third had read about the subject did not detail what exactly happened to erase the majority of the classes from history, but it was widely believed that was some kind of natural disaster, as only the **Geomancer** class of warriors (whose powers revolved around manipulating fire, earth, lightning, water, etc) survived in large numbers and repopulated.

Eventually, even that class disappeared from the world, however their descendants still retained the ability to access their mana pools, although doing so caused them to lose physical energy at a rapid rate (which was not the case when Classed warriors had manipulated their mana). Modern scholars mostly agreed that this was where the idea of chakra came from, as well as the description of chakra being "a mixture of physical and spiritual energy".

If he remembered correctly, Dragoons were said to be armored knights who wielded spears primarily and who were able to move very fast linearly and jump very high even when heavily weighed down by equipment. The special power they wielded which put them on the same level as other Classed warriors was called **Dragon Heart**, which allowed a Dragoon who died to access their mana pools from beyond the grave and pull their soul back into their bodies. Particularly skilled Dragoons were also supposedly able to partially heal their bodies during this process and essentially become combat ready once again immediately.

"So, you are claiming that you somehow enabled Naruto-kun to utilize the long thought mythical Dragoon ability **Dragon Heart**, is that correct?" Hiruzen finally asked, curious as to what this man could tell him about the powers of the ancient warriors.

"I looked over and noticed that the dark haired child was taking his friends death particularly hard, so I tried to give him some hope to soften the blow. I explained that I could jumpstart the dead child's mana pool and temporarily connect him to **Ultima**, which would allow the boy to bring himself back to life if he had a strong enough will to live." He explained, somewhat matching the scenario that the Hokage had come up with earlier.

'That is about what I had figured…' "So, Naruto-kun is a dragoon now? Can you explain a little more of what that entails?" The third asked, automatically considering the military applications of such abilities.

"Not quite yet actually. He successfully used **Dragon Heart**, which is impressive, however he was connected to **Ultima** through me at the time. Even if I tried to teach him, he would be unable to even begin to learn any sort of Class skill until he takes a class oath, the **Oath of the Dragoon **for example in my case."

"I see…" the Sandaime began, "and how will he go about taking this oath and learning to use these abilities. Will you be taking the time to train him?"

"Unfortunately I cannot, however I will leave a few copies I have made of the important texts he would need to read. I do not recommend that he rushes into a decision to take a Class though. While a Class does give access to many abilities, remember that it also comes with a binding oath... a contract with **Ultima** that must be honored under penalty of loss of power or even death in some extreme cases. An oath, for any class really, could easily interfere with the career of a ninja so the matter should be taken seriously."

The man dropped a bag onto the Hokage's desk. When the old man glance inside he noticed a pile of books, way more then should be able to fit inside such a space. 'An ancient sealing method?'

When he looked up, the armored man was gone. The Sandaime just stared at the window. 'He didn't even tell me his name…' he thought with a sweatdrop forming.

He picked up the topmost two text from the bag, "**Pros and Cons of the Class System**" and "**Class Warfare**" and approved of the subtle naming conventions. A casual observer who saw these books on a shelf would assume they were about history or social class disparity. As the old man looked over at the young boys sleeping on his couch, a treasonous thought passed through his mind.

'... perhaps the village can survive even if these two decide on a different path than the way of the ninja. At the very least, it would be entertaining to see what they could come up with.'

**A/N: **Next chapter, time skip!


	3. The Mission to Wave

**A/N:** Here we go, finally the prologue is finished and it's time for some action. I appreciate those few people who reviewed, the show of support definitely boosts the spirit!

Here we go!

**Six years later.**

**Chapter 3: The Mission to Wave, Team Moogle is on the Job**

At any given time, the office of the Hokage is generally filled with large volumes of paperwork to be read and dealt with by the current Hokage. Only on a rare few days did the Fire Shadow ever have a reprieve from this mountainous burden of red tape.

This was not one of those days.

"Hokage-sama, Team Gai is here to see you."

The Sandaime glanced up from his comically large pile of paperwork and responded to his secretary, "Good, send them in." He returned his focus to the mission request form in his hand. 'Escort of a bridge builder to the Land of Waves? My intelligence reports claim that the Land of Waves is currently encountering severe financial difficulties, but without sending someone in specifically to spy on the area I cannot be sure what is truly going on there. Perhaps this mission will shed some light on the matter…'

A green spandex clad Jounin walked into the office, followed by his mini-clone of a student Rock Lee alongside two other two Genin; Higurashi Tenten and Hyuuga Neji. Tenten was holding an unconscious cat with a pink bow, and not very nicely either. The whole team appeared to be rather scratched up.

"YOSH, Team Gai reporting in Hokage-sama! Our youthful mission to catch the wayward Tora was a success!" the Jounin exclaimed, with enthusiasm that did not match the importance of his team's mission at all.

"Oh my baby Tora! Come here my precious!" exclaimed the Fire Lord's wife while appearing out of nowhere. Startled, Tenten threw the cat at her and watched in mild horror and satisfaction as it's limp body was crushed by the massive women. Normally the cat would have flailed around and tried to escape once more, except it had made the mistake of lashing out at Neji during the mission and had been 'not so gently fisted' into a temporary coma.

As the Genin watched the woman carry off Tora, Gai turned to the Hokage who appeared far too amused to be sympathetic to the ordeal the young team had gone through.

"YOSH, my team's youth still burns bright Hokage-sama, we are ready for another mission!"

Sarutobi took a drag from his pipe while his thoughts returned to the Land of Waves. 'Team Gai has never failed a C rank mission before, and is one of my most experienced Genin teams. They should do just fine.'

"All right Gai, I'm assigning your team a C rank mission."

The Genin straightened up and focused on the Hokage hearing this, all of them eager to get out of the village and go on a 'real' mission. They weren't anxious, having been on quite a few C ranks before, but they were aware of the potential for danger that the mission implied.

The Hokage pushed a button on his intercom, "Send in Tazuna." "At once, Hokage-sama."

An old man stumbled into the office; he appeared mildly drunk but obviously still mostly in control of his faculties.

The Hokage gestured towards the drunken man, "This is Tazuna, he is a bridge builder of some fame. He came here to purchase supplies for a bridge he is building in the Land of Waves. The materials have been sealed up for convenience. Your mission is to escort him back to his home land and protect him from bandits. You are to stay with him until he completes his bridge, which might take a while. As such, pack accordingly and make sure to do some training while he finishes his bridge and you take shifts protecting him."

Gai saluted the Sandaime, "Hai, Hokage-sama."

"YOSH, " Lee began, his excitement breaking through, "We will protect this most youthful bridge builder who continues to work so hard even in his advanced age!"

Lee didn't have much in the way of tact…

Tazuna appeared discontent when he first walked in, but held his tongue since he was deceptive in his mission request. The enthusiastic spandex clad youth's remark about his age was too much though.

"Oi! You're one to talk about age, GAKI. I thought I payed to be protected, not to rent entertainment. You look like a fool in that getup, are you really a ninja?" he taunted, shaking his fist at Lee. The fact that the fist was clenched around a bottle of alcohol didn't make Tazuna feel hypocritical in the slightest.

Neji let out a snort at the comment about Lee's ridiculous spandex suit, but trained a glare on Tazuna alongside Tenten for his underestimation of their skills.

Very few things bothered Lee, but insulting his sensei, a man who had took him under his wing and gave him praise, help, and attention when nobody else would acknowledge his dreams, was definitely one of the things that pissed him off. Gai noticed that his student was burning with the fires of indignation rather than the flames of youth, and clapped a hand on his student's shoulder.

"My youthful students have successfully performed similar missions before Tazuna-san, do not worry about them. Besides, I, Konoha's Green Beast Might Gai, will be there as well, so there is nothing to fear!" Gai exclaimed, raising his other hand and making a thumbs up and a smile which temporarily blinded all those present.

'Gai-sensei is so cool! His youth burns too bright to be diminished by such remarks!'

'There is no point in getting angry. Clearly that man is fated to be a drunk loser and thus is not worthy of any response.'

'He better not have dismissed my skills just because I'm a girl… or I'll show him what happens when the cicada's cry…'

The Hokage watched this byplay with narrowed eyes. 'He seems far more nervous and concerned about his personal security than his mission request would suggest as reasonable. He must be withholding something…' For a long time, the Sandaime had been unable to address such concerns as possibly deceitful clients due to the clients generally denying everything and usually taking their business elsewhere when pressed. That made the village look bad and drove revenue down, so it was never the best solution.

He wanted to send an additional team alongside Team Gai as support in case things went to hell, which they very well might if he was reading things correctly. Paying the extra three Genin wasn't an issue, but generally the extra Jounin's pay would make the mission no longer profitable. In the past, due to cost considerations, the extra team would not be sent, and sometimes a Genin team would be lost due to misinformation. Now however…

"I'm going to send an additional team as backup, since you're so concerned with security Tazuna." The Hokage stated suddenly, which startled all those present and brought their attention back to the Sandaime.

"I'm not paying extra for even more brats to look after…" Tazuna began, but was cut off by the aging Hokage.

"Do not worry Tazuna, this will be at no cost to you. The village will be paying the extra team to keep an eye on things." Sarutobi spoke into his intercom, "Send for Team Moogle." "Hai, Hokage-sama".

'Team Moogle?' thought the Genin, having never heard of them before.

'Could they be somehow related to Moogle Inc.?' thought Gai. He had heard of a secretive shop that sold unusually effective healing supplies to the ANBU through his Eternal Rival Hatake Kakashi, who was currently an ANBU captain. Generally speaking, discussing ANBU matters to outsiders was forbidden, but Gai and Kakashi went way back to their childhood so Kakashi was comfortable with revealing a few relatively unimportant bits of information here and there.

"Team Moogle is here, Hokage-sama." Reported the secretary.

"Send them in."

The door opened, and in walked three unusually dressed people around the same age as the Genin of Team Gai, maybe a year younger.

First was a boy with spiky blond hair and piercing blue eyes, which combined with his unblemished face made him look startlingly like a younger version of the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato. He wore a black gi over a mesh undershirt, tucked into a pair of black hakama and secured by a dark blue sash. The outfit was completed by a set of black shinobi sandals and a long, flowing, crimson red scarf he had wrapped around his lower face and neck, the two ends trailing behind him in an overly dramatic fashion. A large broad tipped spear with a dark metal shaft floated behind him apparently of its own accord.

Behind him stood his two teammates. They both wore similar shirt and pant combinations to the blond, but the materials were obviously different. On the spear using kid, the clothes looked tougher, sturdier, and obviously designed with combat in mind. On the other hand, these two's outfits seemed to be made of expensive ceremonial silks. They looked like they would hamper movement and rip at the slightest strain.

The leftmost team member was a raven haired youth. Not that you could tell with the conical straw hat that covered his whole head. With his collar up and his hat pulled down, there was only a pair of white eyes with black pupils apparent where the face would be. The rest was covered in darkness in a way that couldn't be natural. His silky robes were dark black, not quite matching the absolute darkness that covered his face, but still rather dark. Over the robes, he wore a dark blue haori, with long flowing sleeves that went past where his hands should end. The bottom of the haori went a few inches past his feet, lying on the floor. On the whole, it was impossible to tell what he was built like under all that cloth, which was probably one of the points of its design.

On his right was the only female member of Team Moogle; her outfit was similar to her cone hat wearing teammate with only a few key differences. Her robes underneath her haori were white, as was the haori itself which also had an odd pattern of red triangles running along the edge of the bottom as well as the edge of the sleeves. The green eyed, pink haired female did not wear a conical hat like her teammate; instead her haori included a hood, also bearing the pattern of red triangles around the edges. The hood was currently pulled up, however it did not obscure her face anywhere near as much as her teammate and left all the details readily available. Her hands were also hidden inside her long sleeves, and a short staff like object with a glowing crystal on top floated along behind her.

The Black Mage and White Mage moved to stand behind and each to one side of their leader, as the blond haired Dragoon addressed the Hokage.

"Hey there Hokage-jiji, what's up? Got a job for us, eh?"

Team Gai observed the newcomers warily, the way they confidently presented themselves to take missions without a Jounin sensei made them appear to be higher ranked than Genin, yet the way they dressed did not make any sense at all for a shinobi. The apparent leader also addressed the Hokage with unusual familiarity…

The Sandaime looked upon Team Moogle with a proud smile on his face. They had come a long way since that day years ago when they first refused to join the shinobi academy in favor of pursuing a different path…

"Indeed Naruto-kun, Team Gai here has been assigned a C rank mission however the client was a little underwhelmed with the level of protection he believes they would provide…" the Hokage trailed off for a second to allow Naruto to process what he was saying and catch the hidden message.

He was rewarded with a flash of recognition in the eyes of all three members of Team Moogle, who quickly glanced at each other as if to convey their thoughts. Apparently they came to some sot of understanding because Naruto replied, "I see, and you decided to have us tag along just to reassure him…"

The Hokage nodded, pleased that the lack of academy training did not seem to be keeping the blond from developing the analytical skills of a proper shinobi.

"You are correct, Naruto-kun." The Sandaime, turned to address the room at large, "This here is Team Moogle, consisting of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. They are not shinobi, rather they are what is known as a party of adventurers. Since they do not follow the shinobi way, they do not have a Jounin sensei, rather they are led by one of their own members, in this case Naruto-kun." He paused, gesturing at the group while Naruto raised one hand slightly and smiled confidently at the others.

"They mostly make a living hunting down and slaying the many monsters that have been appearing more and more often nowadays. People need monster slaying specialists and so they send mission requests here, and I allow Team Moogle to pick jobs out of the pool of missions which I believe they are capable of completing given their current skills. They also from time to time are hired by the village to assist other teams in the completion of missions that would normally be just a bit beyond a single team's ability to do on their own."

He paused to let all of that information sink in.

'YOSH! They must be extra youthful to slay monsters most foul without the aid of a jounin like Gai-sensei! They will be excellent comrades to aid us in the coming battles!'

'Hmm… I see that the Uchiha did not desire to be a shinobi, and yet fate has decreed that he shall do missions under the command of the Hokage after all. He shouldn't have bothered trying to fight his fate.'

'Oh, Team Moogle, that's cool. I've personally worked with them a few times, so I know how skilled they are. I'll also take any chance to spend time with Naruto-kun I can get…'

'They do not appear to be dressed for battle, however the Hokage allows them to engage those dangerous monsters on their own regularly by his own admission. There must be more to them than meets the eye.'

'Oh great, even more stupid looking children pretending to be body guards… at least I'm not paying them.'

Naruto was trying to take subtle peeks at Tenten without anyone noticing, and was mostly successful but the blond was way too inexperienced to fool the old Fire Shadow, who was amused and curious as to the possibilities of their relationship. Hey, old people get their fun where they can.

Apparently his two teammates noticed as well, because they looked at each other and rolled their eyes simultaneously behind Naruto's back before smirking and focusing back on the Hokage. Well, at least Sarutobi thought Sasuke was smirking, he couldn't really tell with that hat but it seemed like the kind of reaction the boy would have.

When the Sandaime was sure that his words had been understood, he continued.

"Team Moogle will accompany you on this mission. They will only step in if necessary, and will stay with you until the bridge is built. Then they will join Team Gai on the return journey. They are a supplemental team I'm sending as back up, and they have their own way of doing things, so understand that they will be free to break away at any time to pursue other objectives as long as they do not let it interfere with the safe completion of the bridge. Is that clear?"

Team Gai, while generally concerned about the strangely dressed group in front of them, knew better than to argue with their Hokage and all nodded. Tazuna wasn't so sure about adding even more children to the likely death toll, but had no reason to deny free help and so he consented.

"Good, Tazuna and Team Gai, you are dismissed. The mission begins tomorrow morning at 8am at the eastern gate. Team Moogle, stay behind for further instruction."

Team Gai plus Tazuna left, with the Genin taking a few more glances at the three strangely dressed 'adventurers' on their way out.

When they were alone, the Hokage turned to focus once more upon the three children who many years ago lost their respective families, only to join together and form a new one. The Moogle clan. The aging Fire Shadow smirked internally as he thought about the paperwork he had drawn up in secret to create a new clan with those three children as sibling members. Unfortunately, there was business to discuss and paperwork to get back to, so the Hokage couldn't reminisce for long.

"There is something off about this mission. I have reason to suspect that there are dire happenings in the Land of Waves that could make this mission more dangerous than it first appears. That is why I am hiring your party to back up Team Gai." The Hokage explained without preamble.

Naruto nodded, as Sasuke 'hnnn'd' and Sakura made an affirmative noise. They had suspected as much when they were brought in, since they were usually used as support to allow a weak team to take on missions above their level. Team Gai was well known for their prowess and the mission seemed like a simple C rank so when the Hokage hired them to assist it was clear that there was something strange going on.

"I want your team to serve in a mostly defensive capacity. If danger appears, protect the bridge builder and stop any members from dying if you must but do not engage in offensive maneuvers unless absolutely necessary. The Genin do not have as many opportunities to engage in combat with live enemies as you do, so they need the experience. I know that you can bring them back from the brink of death so only step in to heal team after a fight, understand? The lessons they learn in battle will stick with them more easily that way."

A standard request. Team Moogle had gone on a few missions with similar parameters before: don't interfere and let a weaker team get combat experience and come close to death before healing them and bailing them out. It had led to the quick growth of quite a few teams already, not all of them Genin either.

"Hai, Hokage-jiji, we'll keep them safe." The blond saluted and smiled reassuringly.

"I assume that you want us to gather information on the situation in Wave while we are there right?" Sasuke spoke up for the first time. The way his entire face other than his eyes was hidden by darkness was disconcerting to those encountering it for the first time, however the Hokage had long since gotten use to it by then.

"Correct Sasuke-kun. You may also feel free to seek out and preemptively defeat any monsters you discover during your mission to supplement your supply of materials. I know that you just recently upgraded to a storefront for Moogle Inc.. That's a far cry from the mail order business you've been running so far, and the demand will likely skyrocket once your products are used for the first time by those outside of ANBU. The demand is only low right now because your sales claims seem too good to be true, and the ANBU are not allowed to advocate for your business even though they can vouch for the effectiveness of your products. All it will take though is one high profile person to vouch for your shop and you will likely receive a great boom in business. Since I will be taking you away from your normal item gathering in this critical time to do this job, I feel it is only fair that I allow you some leeway to gather materials while you're out there." The Sandaime finished his briefing, smiling as the team all acknowledged his words.

"Meet the other team promptly tomorrow morning at the village gates. Dismissed."

Team Moogle vacated the office, leaving the Sandaime alone with his thoughts once again.

'Hmm… This is the first time I've paired Team Moogle up with a team so similar in age to their own. I wonder how Team Gai will react to them.' He smirked, 'They won't know what hit them.'

* * *

The three child adventurers had lived together in the same apartment for 2 years, ever since Sakura's parents had disowned her and the three children had petitioned the Hokage for the right to join together and become their own clan. The Sandaime decided that (aside from him having a soft spot for the three) they did in fact have enough possessions (healing items and rare books) and secret clan techniques (their class abilities) to legally be considered a clan, and so he allowed Sakura to move in with the two boys while he filed the clan paperwork in secret.

They all shared the same apartment that Naruto and Sasuke originally received after the Uchiha Massacre. Even though Team Moogle had earned and saved up enough money to afford a larger apartment and many nice things if they wanted, they instead carefully saved up most of their earnings over the years in order to have enough capital to open up a shop without needing a loan. They had only recently achieved that goal, but buying the small storefront and the land it was on had used up almost all of their savings, with the rest going to a few renovations needed to prepare for business. The lease on their apartment was due to run out soon and would most likely be up while they were away on the mission, but that was all right because the small shop had a second floor similar in size and layout to their current apartment, so they would just move in there when they got back.

There was one large bed that took up most of the small bedroom in the apartment, and it was currently occupied by the three members of Team Moogle in various states of lazing about. They had spent the time after the meeting with the Hokage getting some last minute training in, and were exhausted.

All three were wearing simpler versions of the ceremonial robes that Mages wore; the two boys in black and Sakura in white. They served as night clothes for the children, who were as close as blood siblings but all the same were more comfortable wearing clothes when sharing the same bed.

As they lay there, Naruto face down with his head resting on his arms, Sasuke laying on his back in the opposite position, and Sakura on her side playing with her hair, they thought about their recent accomplishments and what it meant for them.

They were too tired to talk. But that was just fine.

There wasn't much need for words. They knew each other better than that.

Small bodily motions, an arm gesture here, a twitch there, a smirk and an eye roll over here, were more than enough for them to communicate what they were thinking.

There were a few boasts, some fears aired, reassurances as well but in the end the general feeling was shared.

'Today we've opened our shop. Tomorrow, we make a name for ourselves. Then, we take on the world!'

* * *

"There we go…" Naruto remarked to himself as he finished packing his important equipment into his scarf. It had been inlaid with a combination of seals and runes which gave it similar properties to a storage scroll that could only be used by one person.

Sasuke snorted and rolled his eyes as he too finished packing. "Need any more ramen? I'm not sure you have enough in there…"

At this, Sakura turned from her own packing and stared at her brother in all but blood. They held each others gaze for a few seconds before the pinkettes green eyes twitched towards Sasuke's hand which was even now packing a continuous stream of tomatoes into his cloak which had the same set of seals as Naruto's.

Sasuke stopped as he realized what he was doing, blinked, then he smiled, closed his eyes and shrugged as if to say, "Ah well, you got me there. Doesn't matter though." He then continued packing tomatoes like nothing ever happened.

Sakura read that as a "touché" and made an amused noise as she smiled and turned to make sure she had packed all of the healing items she might need to bring into her own cloak.

All of the big and important things, including the bed, had already been moved to their new place above the shop by this point. Now they were just wasting time for nostalgia as they grabbed little things here and there. Eventually, only junk that no one cared about was left in the apartment they had shared for many years. The three finished their packing and met up out front of the building.

"Well that's it…" Naruto stated with finality, "From now on we live in our own shop, that we busted our asses and saved every penny for."

The group just stared at the building for several seconds, lost in memories.

"I'm going to miss this place you know?" said Sakura softly, "This was my home, my sanctuary after I was thrown out… it was the first place where I could be myself without regrets or the pressures of my fami- of my parents." She caught herself, she had a new family now, one that treated her far better than her old one did. Disown her just because she had struck up a strong friendship with two boys who the village had turned their back on and also refused to be married off like some piece of property in order to 'save face' for the family...

Sasuke knew what she was thinking about and decided to pull her mind back to the connection they shared, "It was like that for all of us Sakura…" he trailed off for a second. It felt so good to have a brother and a sister who cared for him as he did them, the least he could do was reach out to them occasionally even if he wasn't very good at that kind of thing. "Me and Naruto, we lived together back with my old family, but we couldn't stay at the compound after the massacre. This place the Hokage got for us, it was our home too… a place without a past or regrets to start fresh."

Sakura stared at Sasuke and shook off her previous train of thoughts. She knew that Sasuke didn't like to speak much, and the fact that he would gladly go through the effort just to cheer her up (and he did so often) always filled her with a quiet joy.

She smirked, 'time to lighten the mood' "Aww… I just can't stay down with cute little Sasuke around to cheer me up."

Sasuke blushed, not that you could see it through the darkness that obscured his face (the hat was engraved with a fancy light sealing rune array that he and Naruto had spent way too much time tinkering with), and turned away with his arms crossed.

"…hn…"

Naruto grinned at his siblings and their playful antics, glad that the somber moment was over. He could be serious when necessary, but he was always more of a glass half full kind of guy and he couldn't help but have a bounce in his step usually. Seeing his most precious people bonding and having fun only put him in an even better mood.

"C'mon guys, let's not keep King Eyebrows and his minions waiting!"

Sasuke turned to him, deciding to include the blond in the early morning teasing.

"Yeah ok, we all know that you just want to spend as much time with 'Ten-chan' as possible." He smirked as he said this and drew out 'Ten-chan' in an obnoxious way, you couldn't see his smirk because of the hat but Naruto could tell by the tone of his voice.

Now it was his turn to blush as he turned halfway away and scratched the back of his head.

He didn't deny it.

Sakura rolled her eyes and said, "He's right though. Let's do this!" before she vanished in a blur of speed in the direction of the east gate.

The two boys stopped and stared at each other for half a second, before they both blurred away as well.

* * *

Despite the comments about being on time, Team Moogle was first to the gate. They waited around for about 5 minutes, amusing themselves by trying to make each other laugh using just their eyes.

They had done this many times before, so it wasn't an easy contest. Sasuke won when a sexy teenage civilian girl tripped and landed in a compromising position on the ground nearby, with her rear up in the air and facing the group. When she landed all three turned to look, then turned back to look at each other.

When Sasuke activated his Sharingan and turned to look at the girls behind again intending to permanently memorize the contours of the women's shapely ass, it was too much for Naruto who doubled over in laughter. Even though Sakura smacked Sasuke on the back of the head they all knew she was amused because she immediately turned away and covered her mouth with her hand, her shaking shoulders giving her laughter away.

After a few seconds the laughter began to subside, both of them realizing that Sasuke had easily won. When they turned to Sasuke to congratulate him, they noticed that the girl had realized she was being stared at. Much to the shock of Team Moogle, rather than getting upset the girl tried to play it off with a purposefully seductive pose. This was also somewhat amusing, but it just didn't compare to 'suddenly perverted Sasuke' on the scale of hilarity.

Then she smacked her behind. Turning to Sasuke, they both watch as his eyes widened, and his Sharingan which was previously 2 tomoe evolved into 3 tomoe. The two non-Uchiha looked at each other once again and then burst out into laughter even harder than before.

That Sasuke's Sharingan, which they had struggled to evolve for years, would reach its third stage by recording… THAT…. It was just too much. They were laughing so hard they could barely stand, and tears threatened to fall from Sakura's eyes as she desperately held onto Naruto for support, who himself was leaning on his spear.

This is the scene that Team Gai plus Tazuna witnessed when they arrived seconds later, having turned the corner around the building and barely missed the entire event.

Tazuna didn't know what the deal was with these three, but he sure wanted to find out. If they knew about something _that_ amusing, they should share it! I mean, after all with the world as crappy as it was you should take what you can get.

"You guys look like you're having a good time…" He began, but he didn't get far enough to ask what was going on.

His voice prompted the two to get control of themselves, but upon hearing what he had to say, Naruto couldn't help himself.

"Hey Sasuke, it was good for her, was it good for you." The girl had left a short while earlier, apparently regaining her wits and thinking she was being laughed at, so Tazuna could only assume the blond was talking about his priestess looking teammate.

The pink haired girl got a grip on herself just long enough to say, "…This is the best day. Ever."

For some reason that sent the other two back into near hysterics, and Tazuna still didn't get the joke dammit!

The members of Team Gai had varying reactions.

'YOSH! Their youthful spirit is truly bright to have overcome their ability to breath! If I cannot amuse Neji twice as much during this mission I will fight 50 of those monsters I heard about yesterday blindfolded! And if I cannot do that…'

'They laugh and enjoy themselves because they are fools. They cannot fool my eyes with their overabundant mirth, there is nothing around here to merit such ridiculous laughter. Their fate…'

'Aw damn, I must have missed something really awesome if they're rolling on the ground like that. I'll have to ask Naruto-kun about it later.'

'So, Sasuke has unlocked the third form of his Sharingan, and his teammates are beside themselves with joy! Such happiness for a teammate's progress is most youthful!'

"YOSH! While I admire your youthful flames Naruto-kun and comrades, we must be off on our mission now!"

* * *

They proceeded relatively slowly for ninja. Even though Tazuna proclaimed himself as a 'super bridge builder', he was really just an architect and was too old to handle being carried at high speeds by ninja. So they walked along the road to Wave at a pace that was comfortable for Tazuna. It was surprisingly quick for an old civilian, but still painfully slow for a shinobi.

They walked in formation, with Tazuna in the middle followed immediately by Sakura. Lee and Sasuke walked along either side of Tazuna with Neji leading at the front. Naruto and Tenten walked side by side behind Sakura with Gai bringing up the rear.

A few hours into their journey, when the sun was high in the sky and burning fiercely, they came across a puddle in the middle of the road.

Neji would have noticed something was wrong if he had his Byakugan active, except he didn't in order to save chakra on the long journey. All three members of Team Moogle picked up on the likely trap and signaled each other discreetly.

"… and then, get this, we turn to congratulate Sasuke on winning and you'll never guess what happened!" Naruto continued recounting the events from earlier to Tenten, lest he let on that he knew something was wrong to any enemies hiding nearby.

'Probably a trap, I need a group wide protect / shell right now and a reflect up on Tazuna if something big goes down. Sasuke, don't engage unless personally attacked, and then tier 2 restrictions apply.'

"Seriously! No way!" Tenten exclaimed, barely keeping a straight face just from hearing the story second hand. It was tempting to give in the laughter that threatened her, but she was on a mission and couldn't afford to get too distracted or she might miss something out of place.

Something like that odd puddle.

Hmmm.

'Confirmed'

'Hai, taicho'

A few subtle flicks of Sakura's fingers and all 8 members of the group were under the blessings of **Protect** and **Shell**, which would each convert physical or chakra based damage, respectively, into purely endurance damage. In other words, no matter what attack hit anyone or where it hit them, they would take no physical damage but could suddenly become much more tired depending on the severity of the attack. If knocked all the way out, further damage would drastically fall off in effectiveness as the stillness of the body would allow the enchantments to more easily draw upon the power of the world for protection.

These two spells alone were a game changer, and all but guaranteed that confrontations where Team Moogle was involved would always remain non-fatal to them and their allies. This ability alone would be enough cause for the Sandaime to pay them to assist teams.

The only reason the spells weren't kept up from the beginning of the mission was that, to a chakra sensor or a skilled enough ninja, the spells essentially painted an outline of the person and made it ridiculously easy to find someone. Painting a target on your client is generally not the best thing to do on an extended escort mission after all.

They passed the puddle and suddenly two ninja wearing clawed gauntlets and connected by a chain jumped out of it. Before three of the travelers knew what happened, they wrapped Gai up in the chain and yanked hard. The grisly, shredded remains of a log splattered all over the ground and the two assassins rushed forward, with a battle cry.

"The tough one's down, just a few brats left!"

The chain was disconnected into two sections as the two assailants split off to different targets.

Lee was too stunned by the apparent death of his father figure and mentor to react properly, and he immediately abandoned the client to charge over to his senseis 'body'. Such was his distraction that he completely ignored both that Gai's 'remains' looked suspiciously like pieces of wood as well as the approaching assassin before he was impaled by the large metal gauntlet and killed instantly.

Or at least, that's what would normally have happened.

Instead, when the claws slammed into Lee spike first, he was merely knocked away by the physical impact of the blow, but the hit and corresponding fatigue shocked Lee out of his stupor, and he quickly leaped forward to get revenge for his 'fallen' idol.

The assassin however had the opposite reaction. He was so stunned by what happened when he tried to stick his arm through the weirdly dressed genin, that he ended up off balance and was unable to defend himself from the incoming counterattack before Lee was already kicking the crap out of him.

"**Konoha Senpu!"**

Lee dropped and at high speeds did a leg spinning sweep which knocked the enemy's legs out from under him and dropped his guard. Lee then planted his hands on the ground and lifted himself a few feet into the air, continuing his spin from the previous leg sweep and kicking the enemy ninja directly in the face this time.

Rock Lee trained while wearing ridiculously heavy weights on his legs (weighing upwards of one hundred pounds on each foot), so it was no surprise that getting hit in the face by that kind of force knocked the 'missing nin' out cold. Slamming into a tree from the force of the kick didn't help either.

At the same time that Lee was getting knocked back instead of being killed like he was supposed to, the other assassin, who happened to be the twin brother of the one who attacked Lee, used chakra to boost his legs and make a powerful leap towards Tazuna, intending to jump right over the two little girls playing ninja below him and take out his target directly.

He knew that the Hyuuga would not be able to block his strike with his poisonous claw, and even if he did his tenketsu were safe due to the metal which was treated to deflect chakra. It wouldn't stop a fireball, but it would damn sure stop some small gentle fist love tap.

He also noticed that the blue cloak wearing child hadn't so much as twitched since the attack began. 'He's probably still in shock' the Chuunin thought, 'Perfect, one less obstacle to deal with before I kill the bridge builder.'

Unfortunately for him, his plan didn't take into account either of the females he dismissed.

Sakura had a **Reflect** ready to be cast, but knew that she wouldn't need it. She had trained with Tenten for years after all, and knew that she could hold her own.

Higurashi 'Makes them Cry' Tenten was not amused at being dismissed by the rouge nin who tried to kill her sensei.

She knew he didn't really die because, honestly there was no body, there were just pieces of a broken log from a kawarmi. Any academy student could see through that.

Seriously, what kind of lame ass missing nin assassin doesn't notice when their target uses an academy level technique to escape?

Deciding to literally take the dumb nin down a peg, she jumped high and backwards towards Tazuna so that she was above and in front of the charging enemy. She then readied a kunai and threw it at a link in a piece of the chain that was still connected to his glove.

The links were small, with barely a centimeter sized hole that was partially filled with pieces of two other links in the chain. The ninja was moving quickly, in excess of 30 mph towards Tazuna, and the chain was being rattled all over the place due to the wind. Every time the assassin moved his arm, the link shifted by several feet.

The kunai slipped perfectly into the link she was aiming for and pinned the chain to the ground.

It was one of the easier shots she had made in the last week.

The chain suddenly went taught and snapped the flying nin down towards the Hyuuga waiting on the ground, who unleashed 2 ^ n gentle fist strikes where n 0 and n 7.

The poor fool was out before he hit the ground.

Both of the ambushing nins were unconscious within a few moment of each other.

A few seconds after the conflict ended, Gai jumped out of a nearby bush.

"Gai-sensei! You're alive!" exclaimed Lee, as he charged forward to hug his mentor; however he was met with a fist to the face instead.

Lee hit the ground hard and looked up to his idol with tears in his eyes, "Gai-sensei…?"

"Lee you fool!" the Jounin proclaimed while shaking the fist he used to punch Lee out, "You lost your head and almost died because of it! If not for Sakura-chan protecting you with some kind of shield you would have!"

Lee's eyes watered even more, "But Gai-sensei…I thought you died… I don't know what I would do…"

"It's OK Lee…" Gai interrupted, getting rather teary eyed himself, "You don't have to say it…"

Suddenly the two leaped at each other. Tenten and Neji quickly looked away since they knew what was coming.

The rest however, watched on in morbid fascination as the man and his mini-clone hugged in front of a beautiful sunset as the waves crashed against the beach…. Wait what?

"What the hell?" asked Naruto as her turned to Sakura, "aren't we on a road in a forest? This is a genjutsu right?"

Sakura shook her head, "I don't know… **Genjutsu: Kai** didn't work to dispel it, but it might just be a very powerful genjutsu, what do you think Sasuke?" she turned to ask her other brother and noticed that he was paying rapt attention to the sunset and waves while ignoring the two hugging in front of them.

"Fascinating…" he mumbled, as his Sharingan spun rapidly while he memorized the technique and how to reproduce it, "With this technique, it should be possible to unleash unbreakable genjutsu at will so long as the illusion isn't in and of itself disturbing to the subconscious mind… This gives me so many ideas…"

Naruto and Sakura looked at each other and shivered. They knew that tone of voice all right. They also knew that this was definitely not the last time they would be seeing whatever genjutsu Gai and his clone had been using, although the beach scene was probably not coming back. At least not by Sasuke.

No, Sasuke had bigger plans.

'Now, how to best combine this genjutsu with my attacks as to make them as disturbing as possible without disrupting the jutsu…'

Oh yes, he had bigger plans indeed.


End file.
